Wishing for Whales

Wishing for Whales

Noel Laflin

11-16-16

Several magnificent pods of gray whales swimming and spouting close to shore stopped the Laguna Beach Rotary meeting dead in its tracks one fine winter day some forty years ago.  Because of that sudden and unexpected sight, as witnessed by those of us standing and watching through the large bay windows of the elegant, old banquet room, it is, consequently, the only Rotary meeting that I can ever really recall.  It was a most memorable distraction.

Oh, sure, there was the time I attended a different civic club meeting down in San Juan Capistrano when a couple of drunken Kiwanians pushed the button to open the sliding roof at the El Adobe Restaurant during a howling rain storm.  Now, that was memorable too just for the mayhem that quickly ensued; but nothing as so fondly remembered as the spouting of twenty whales a few hundred yards off-shore in a landmark establishment once haunted by the likes of Bogart and Bacall, Madam Modjeska, a prince of Russia, and Myrna Loy.  Catalina Island beckoning just twenty-six miles beyond that provided a pretty stunning backdrop as well.

I got to thinking about this sight, back when I was a much younger man, as a couple of youngsters that I have known for nearly than half their lives are going to be married at the Hotel Laguna a couple of days before Christmas. Those two kids are now about the age I was when I attended that Rotary meeting there so long ago.

And aside from wishing them much happiness of course, I also hope a few whales are spotted during the ceremony.  It leaves one with a lasting impression.